WSU Welcomes 2017 Recruiting Class with Excitement!

On February 1st, 2017, the nation sits back and watches top high school football athletes choose the educational institute where they will further their academics and athletics. With the competitiveness of college football in today’s world, this is a very important day for many people. Universities, athletic departments, coaches, players and families have a lot invested in which school these athletes go to. One of those schools is Washington State University, home of the Cougars.

With the likes of star wide receivers Gabe Marks and River Cracraft leaving, WSU had to make a big splash in recruiting the class of 2017 to improve or even match the success in the last two seasons. In 2015 the Cougs had a 9-4 record with a bowl win against Miami. In 2016 they went 8-5 with a bowl loss to Minnesota including a Pac12 win streak of seven straight wins. These are both looked at as successful seasons for WSU, especially being in a conference as tough as the Pacific 12. The Pac12 is one of the toughest conferences in the nation and year after year top recruits commit to the schools in the conference. With this being true, the Cougars compete against the best which means they need to recruit the best.

As February 1st concluded, Washington State University was very excited to welcome in the recruiting class of 2017! The Cougs signed one 4 star recruit and twenty-two 3 stars. In this group of twenty seven, the single four star recruit was the number one ranked receiver in the state of California. Jamire Calvin flipped commitments from Nebraska over to Washington State and will be a major part in trying to replace the productivity of Marks and Cracraft. Along with Calvin, the other 26 guys that WSU signed filled all other necessary areas for Cougs. Many receivers, offensive lineman and defensive backs are apart of the 2017 recruiting class that will help WSU improve as a team. This class bring a lot of excitement to Washington State University and has Coug nation excited for seasons to come!

As a sport management major at WSU, recruiting is very important to me. A lot of job opportunities in sport have a lot of behind the scenes work. Recruiting is a perfect example of the behind the scenes work. Recruiters, along with the main coaches, travel constantly to find the right guys to fill gabs and improve the team. These guys do this with very little external recognition and are aware of this when doing the job. These are the types of jobs that I will be working in my future that is why articles like this are important to someone like me, a future sport management professional.